THE TOLL ROAD THROUGH CAJON PASS

The economy of the desert community
in pioneer days was, and still is for that matter, tied inextricably
to the road through Cajon Pass. Practically everyone used this route
to travel back and forth between the desert and the inland valleys or
the coast. The miners and ranchers, as well as the immigrants and
freighters, utilized the pass, and the supplies and services provided
to the desert dwellers by those "down below" came through the same
corridor. In 1861 John Brown significantly improved a pack trail
through Cajon Pass and charged toll for its use.

During the early 1870s the toll road,
or "turnpike" as many called
it, was kept in poor condition in the opinion of many of the teamsters,
desert residents and others who regularly used the road. In the spring
of 1875 Captain Lane and his friend, George Blake, determined to take
action to correct the problem and ran an advertisement in the March
29th issue of the San Bernardino Weekly Argus:

NOTICE

THE UNDERSIGNED
gives notice that
in consequence of the bad condition
of the Cajon Toll Road, that unless the road is put in thorough repair
by the 1st. day of May, the citizens living between the Point of
Rocks and Lane's Crossing, they will decline to pay toll after the
above date.

A. G. LANE
GEO. BLAKE

The deadline lapsed, and true to his
word, Lane circumvented the
tollhouse gate on several occasions. In the summer of 1875
John J. Driggers, who had leased the road from John Brown, was
compelled to sue Lane in San Bernardino District Court in order to
get him to cease the activity.

Brown participated in the case of
Driggers v Lane on behalf of Driggers, and thus two well-known and
respected pioneers became pitted against each other. The case soon
developed in complexity, extending far beyond the original issue
of maintenance. Before it ended, even Brown's authority to charge
toll was brought into question.

Photo from Thompson Collection

TOLL ROAD OWNER JOHN
BROWN SR. (SEATED), WITH

PIONEER SILAS COX, ON AN
OUTING IN THE MOUNTAINS

SANFORD'S ROAD THROUGH CAJON PASS

The toll road was an adaptation of
the old Spanish Trail, which,
prior to Brown's improvement, was suitable only for pack trains,
although wagons could be taken through with extreme difficulty.
Sydney Waite and Sheldon Stoddard used the road on their trip into
California in 1849, and their wagons had to be unloaded and actually
dismantled in order to traverse the steep and narrow, boulder-strewn
canyons characterizing the east Cajon route.

The following year,
freighters Phineas Banning and W. T. B. Sanford constructed a much
better wagon road through the west Cajon valley. The route was not
nearly as rough as the crossing on the old Spanish Trail five or six
miles to the east, but it lengthened the travel by several miles and
it was described as being excessively steep at the summit.

In 1855
the west Cajon route was further improved by Sanford, who constructed
a new summit crossing about one and one-half miles west of his original
road. The grades of this road were stated to be "only 30%," although
the last 150 yards were acknowledged to be "precipitous." In the case
of one caravan of fifteen wagons, it was reported that the usual
unloading and reloading of the freight was avoided only by hitching
32 mules, in turn, to each wagon.

BROWN'S TURNPIKE AND
VAN DUSEN'S ROAD BUILT

So while Sanford's road was definitely
an improvement, the trip over the summit was still arduous for
those hauling heavily loaded conveyances. The steep grade vexed
the freighters for years, and it was not until 1861, with the
increased trade to the mines and the need to transport heavy
machinery to Holcomb Valley, that the impetus was provided to do
something about the situation. The Los Angeles Star ran
an article
on April 6, 1861, proclaiming that it was essential to improve the
road that was so vital to the economy of the Southland:

This road
is the great thoroughfare from Los Angeles and San Bernardino to
the great gold and silver fields now known to exist and which at
present are being worked, east of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range
Mountains. And not only this, but over it all the travel from the
north, not passing over the San Fernando Mountain, going southward,
must pass. At the head of the cañon is one of the steepest mountains
in the State, over which a road passes, and teamsters have always
complained of the great difficulties
encountered in the ascent.

So severely
has this been felt, that
many of them have offered $5 a load toll to any parties who would
cut down the mountain and make a turnpike road of it. As the travel
on this road has been greatly increased of late by the trade to the
mines, it has become absolutely necessary to take steps to improve
the mountain pass road. For this purpose subscription lists have
been circulated this week here and in San Bernardino, to raise money
to cut down the road across the mountain, and thus facilitate transit
to the mines.

Although it is not clear from this
article, there were actually two separate roads under review.
One would connect the mines at Holcomb Valley with Cajon Pass
by traversing down the north slope of the San Bernardino Mountains,
and this was the one to be constructed with funds obtained from
subscriptions. The other road was proposed to go through the pass
and link the desert to the valley, and was to be built as a private
venture for the purpose of collecting toll.

On April 20th, the Star reported that
prospective subscribers for the Holcomb Valley road had appointed
a committee consisting of prominent Cucamonga citizen John Rains,
freighter W. T. B. Sanford and Los Angeles merchant Francis Mellus,
who had examined the road and had returned with recommendations for
alternative alignments. The cost was less than the $2,000 previously
estimated, and it turned out the amount needed had already been
collected. Elsewhere in the same issue of the Star, an article
stated that Jed Van Dusen, the miner who later built the Holcomb
Valley road, had been over the proposed route a second time, and
he felt it was much better than he originally had supposed.

Meanwhile, on April 17th the state had
passed legislation entitled, "An Act to Authorize the Construction
of a Wagon Road in the Cajon Pass," which gave John Brown, Henry M.
Willis and George L. Tucker the right to construct a road and to
collect toll for its use at rates to be determined each year by the
County Board of Supervisors. Work began immediately under a contract
granted to Sydney P. Waite, Horace C. Rolfe and David N. Smith, who
directed a crew of 30 to 40 workers. The job before them would not
be easy, since the route went through some very difficult terrain.

The road began at Martin's Ranch near
present-day Devore and
traversed Cajon Canyon. Partway up the canyon, at what is now Blue
Cut, was the narrowest segment of the lower portion of the road,
known at that time as the "lower narrows." Continuing up the canyon
along the bank of the creek, the road entered a ravine currently
called Crowder Canyon, but known as Coyote Canyon in pioneer times.

Glenn Edgerton photo

COYOTE CANYON AT
THE UPPER NARROWS. THE TOLL ROAD

CAN BARELY BE SEEN AS A HORIZONTAL LINE A FEW FEET ABOVE

THE FLOOR OF THE CREEK, BEHIND THE TOP OF THE BUSH.

This area, which was referred to
as the "upper narrows," is
extremely constricted in places, and is strewn with boulders, many
of considerable size. The road followed the canyon bottom for a
distance before turning up the steep ascent towards the summit.
This was the section of road that caused the most trouble, both
during the initial construction and subsequently with maintenance.
By midsummer the construction was complete,
and the Board of Supervisors established what seems to be a fairly
stiff toll:

Shortly after the completion of the
turnpike and Van Dusen's road, Mellus hired the freighting firm of
Banning and Hinchman to move a boiler weighing 8,000 pounds from Los
Angeles to Holcomb Valley. The boiler was to be used at the quartz
mill, where they crushed the ore. There were differences of opinion
on whether the monstrous apparatus could be hauled over the mountains,
but under the direction of the capable Sanford, the feat was
accomplished.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper,
April 12, 1879

TRANSPORTING HEAVY
MACHINERY UP STEEP MOUNTAIN

ROADS WAS A MONUMENTAL JOB. TEAMS IN CAJON

PASS OFTEN CONSISTED OF 12 MULES OR HORSES.

The wagons left Los Angeles on the 17th of July
and arrived at Holcomb Valley on August 13th. This had been the
first major challenge for Brown and his road, and he had done
everything in his power to assist Sanford in his efforts. The Los
Angeles Star, reporting on their success, said, "All wagons from
Los Angeles and San Bernardino now go by the turnpike -- the old Spanish
trail, made into a good wagon road, having grass and water within easy
distances."

BROWN FACES HARDSHIPS DUE
TO FLOODS AND MARAUDERS

The toll road was associated with John
Brown from the very beginning, the other two men being financial
backers. Henry Willis was a lawyer at the time and later a judge,
and he became very prominent in the San Bernardino area. George L.
Tucker, referred to as "the Major," was a successful investor.

In July of 1861 Tucker received the
attention of the press when he
bought the American Exchange, a saloon located across from the
well-known Bella Union Hotel in Los Angeles. "Major Tucker," said
the Star, "has been in enterprises in this section
heretofore, having been one of the joint purchasers of San
Bernardino rancho in 1857, when the Mormons sold out and left
that place."

Willis and Tucker lent Brown $213.50 each, a total
of $427, to build the road. This must have been in addition to
the money they put up for their own shares. The funds were lent
at three-percent interest per month, a common figure for the time,
and were to be paid back out of the proceeds from the toll collection.
Brown was in a position to buy out Willis' interest in the road
before the end of 1861, and was able to buy Tucker's share by April
of 1863.

Photo from Heritage of the Valley, courtesy
Kay Beattie

FRANCIS MELLUS'
8,000-POUND BOILER IN HOLCOMB VALLEY

In February 1862 the Board released Brown
from paying taxes on the toll road, for reasons not entirely clear
from the minutes, but presumably having to do with the damage done
to the road by the terrible storms that inundated San Bernardino
County in the winter of 1861/62. There was some question whether
Brown would be able to restore the road at all, due to financial
concerns.

The rains had begun in late December
of 1861, and by early January much of the area had already experienced
heavy flooding. On January 10th, a Holcomb Valley man by the name
of J. G. Nichols hiked out of the mountains by way of the desert road,
and according to his reports the Mojave River was running very high,
and he could see lakes all over the desert where none had been before.
In describing the pass, he said, "...there is no road at all, the
torrents have swept every thing out of their way."

John Brown,
though devastated by the loss of his road, resolved to rebuild it,
and as can be seen in this January 12th correspondence to Judge
Benjamin Hayes, Brown's biggest obstacle was funding for the project:

It has
been raining three weeks steadily at San Bernardino. My road...is
all washed away;
all my former work is lost; I have now to make a new
road, or lose all that I have expended. Some people advise me to
quit road-building, but I am determined to build a road at all hazards.
I returned from the road yesterday, and shall go back to-morrow with
the men, etc., to build it up again. My greatest trouble is the money
to pay. Is Godey or Miguel Ortiz
in Los Angeles?

Brown did restore the road, but it took
most of his assets. He was forced to sell all of his hay and the
larger portion of his cattle.

John Brown might not have been so
determined to rebuild his road if
he had known of the headaches that were in store for him. One of his
problems, at least for the original tollhouse, was marauders. He had
built the structure in the upper narrows, and its vulnerable location
below a bluff made it an inviting target.

In May of 1862 Indians
attacked and wounded the keeper of the tollgate, David Noble Smith.
According to an account given by W. F. Holcomb, the attack occurred
around sundown, when Smith and a hired man named Larkin Reeder were
working outside in the yard in front of the tollhouse (John Brown
had left the area to take his family to the safety of the city,
because he had seen several signs of Indians in the Cajon area).
The Indians slipped up into some cover on the steep bluff overlooking
the station and began firing on the two men, which sent both of
them running for the tollhouse. Before reaching safety, Smith was
seriously, though not mortally, wounded.

A few days later Holcomb
passed through the area on his way to the mountains and learned of
the attack. He enlisted the aid of three others and tracked the band
of Indians up Lytle Creek, over the mountains and out into the desert,
eventually giving up the chase at Tehachapi.

Another incident, which made the news,
occurred a year later in May of 1863, when the tollhouse was visited
by horse thieves. Some "light-fingered gents" entered Brown's pasture
at the station and stole two of his fine mules and a saddle horse,
plus two additional horses belonging to a man freighting goods to
Holcomb Valley. They sent for the sheriff, who tracked the thieves
for some distance into the desert, but was unable to catch up with
them. The newspaper warned, "If there are any more of the same breed
of dogs left behind, expecting to make a similar haul, I would advise
them not to be seen lurking in the vicinity of the tollgate," and
offered a bet that "Don Juan gets the scalp of the first suspicious
individual he catches about his premises."

A SECOND TOLLHOUSE BECOMES NECESSARY

John Brown's daughter, Louisa, who
married San Bernardino attorney Byron Waters, recalled some of the
events that took place in Cajon Pass in a story she wrote for a
magazine article many decades later. She said her father's principal
duties were to collect tolls, keep the road in good repair, and keep
an eye out for hostile Indians.

Early on it was discovered that some
cattlemen were avoiding the toll by skirting the tollhouse in the
upper narrows. This was simple enough to do by merely going through
the west Cajon valley over Sanford's road, which connected to Brown's
turnpike below the tollhouse. Louisa wrote that the solution to the
problem was the construction of another tollhouse at the lower narrows.

Based on statements in the judge's
instructions to the jury in Driggers v Lane,
the lower tollhouse was put in place three or four
years after the road was built. Thanks to a July 1864 trip to the
Arizona mines by celebrated chemist and metallurgist Benjamin Silliman,
Jr., the date can be even further pinpointed. Silliman wrote a
report of his journey, in which he mentioned the new tollgate:

An adventurous
pioneer on the outskirts of civilization has erected a toll gate
just before entering the Cajon Pass, where he exacts a fee of all
passers in return for some labor bestowed upon the road at that
point;
this 'black mail' is cheerfully paid to the self-constituted
supervisor.

Louisa does not mention the names of the
cattlemen who avoided the toll, but the revenue lost from Lane's
few livestock, or that of any other single Mojave dweller at that
time, was not enough to warrant constructing and manning a new
station. The one exception might have been the Parrish ranch in
Summit Valley, but it is more likely that the source was the
herds of "foreign" stock, such as those brought by J. E. Pleasants
and others from the Los Angeles area.

Pleasants, in fact, admits
that on his trip in 1864, the drovers took the wagons "through the
toll gates, but took the stock up the canyon, not having to go
through the gate." Brown's loss in this one incident was $150 (five
cents times 3,000 head of cattle), which makes Pleasants' cattle
drive the prime candidate for the reason the tollhouse was constructed
at the lower narrows -- and the dates jibe.

MORE PROBLEMS WITH INDIANS AND FLOODS

The keepers of the lower tollhouse fared much
better with the Indians than those at the upper station. Louisa
Waters wrote that her father had taken precautions against the
Indians by building high board fences around both tollhouses, and
that at the lower station he had dug a cave into an embankment to
be used as refuge during an attack. Actually, it was more likely
that the cave was used for storing supplies, as stated in an
anonymous article appearing in a Covered Wagon Days program.
The precautions at the lower tollhouse proved unnecessary, as the only
difficulty with Indians there was when eight of their best horses
were stolen.

1949 Covered Wagon Days program

SITE OF BROWN'S ORIGINAL TOLLGATE IN THE LOWER
NARROWS. THE CAVE HE DUG INTO THE BANK, MOST OF WHICH STILL EXISTS,
APPEARS AT BOTTOM RIGHT OF PHOTO.

The upper tollhouse was not as fortunate.
There were
further incidents involving Indians in and around the upper narrows,
one of which was recounted by pioneer George Miller. Miller tells
the story of the time Sydney P. Waite noticed a bluejay darting down
on something concealed in the bushes on the bluff. Always on the
alert for Indians, Waite was suspicious and fired a shot into the
area where the bird was flitting about. Nothing moved, nor was there
any sound, but after thinking about it overnight, he investigated
the spot the next day and found the dead body of an Indian.

In December of 1867 another round of
major storms began, and soon after the first of the new year,
reports came in that the road had been greatly damaged and that
the floods had "torn it all to pieces." It was virtually impassable,
but Brown gave assurances that he would repair it as soon as the
weather permitted. In a letter to the editor of the San Bernardino
Guardian dated January 22nd, Brown
wrote that he was making steady,
if not rapid, progress on the restoration of his road:

I am way
up here above the clouds, amidst the snow-capped peaks of the
Sierra Nevada, trying to repair the damage done to the Cajon road
during the floods;
I feel confident for the task, and am making
good headway. Only two places remain bad and they are not so as
to prevent teams from passing through the Cañon. A government
train, heavily loaded, passed on the way to Camp Cady safe on
Friday last.

I would
have made better progress in repairing my road, had not some
villain broke my iron scrapers to pieces, carrying off my chains
and injuring the tools I have
to work with.

In a report to the Board of Supervisors,
Brown gave a financial statement for the year ending December
31, 1867. He showed total expenses on the road equaled $8,203.45,
while total receipts were only $6,261.68, for a net loss of $1,941.77.
The report was included in the minutes of the November 19, 1867,
meeting, so his figures had been projected to the end of the year.
His costs, therefore, could not have included his losses from the
heavy damages caused by the floods, and thus appear to be quite high
for ordinary annual expenses.

In spite of Brown's declared losses,
the Board ordered the toll rate to remain as originally established.
This decision did not seem to be in accordance with the legislative
act, which stipulated that the Supervisors "shall not so establish,
or reduce, the rates of toll, so as to make the dividend on said
road less than three per cent. per month upon a fair valuation of
the said road...." A complete accounting is not given in the
Board's minutes, so the reasons behind the decision to leave the
toll unchanged are not fully known.

One area where Brown did
receive some assistance was in a reduced appraisal, and therefore,
a reduced tax. The toll road originally had been assessed at $1,000,
but in 1867 the figure had declined to $800, and by 1869, the
assessment was only $600. However, though the declining appraisals
were a temporary financial advantage, they actually represented a
reduction in the value of the road, which meant that Brown's
investment was being undermined by the constant flooding problems.

D'Heureuse photo, courtesy Bancroft Library

THE UPPER TOLLHOUSE IN 1863

LEASES ROAD TO MCKENNEY AND MATHEWS

In April of 1868 Brown ran an
advertisement announcing he had leased the road out to others for
a period of one year so that he could take a vacation:

The
undersigned...would respectfully inform his friends and the public
that he has leased his Toll Road in the Cajon Pass, to the
enterprising gentlemen, McKenney & Mathews, for the term of one
year, they taking possession on the 25th Inst., and are to keep
the road in good repair....

This road
is twelve miles in length,
crossing the entire range of the Sierra Nevada, and like all other
mountain Roads is subject to damage by floods. The proprietor has
spared no pains in keeping the Road in repair at all Seasons of the
year. No Road in the State is
kept in better condition....

Brown did not reveal in his announcement
whether the burdens of tending to his hellish road had anything
to do with his decision, but he did make what seem to be somewhat
defensive comments about the job he had been doing in maintaining
the road. Brown often sounded defensive about the turnpike, so
there must have been more than just a few complaints, however it
was not until the mid-1870s that the condition of the toll road
became a major issue.

Flooding problems revisited the pass in
March 1869, when torrents of rain from a cloudburst did extensive
damage to Brown's toll road. The road was impassable for heavily
loaded wagons, and a large work crew was needed to restore it.

The road crossed Cajon Creek about
one-half mile above the lower
narrows on what was then the site of the Faurot house (later
called Bear Flat Ranch or Station, and now known as Cosy Dell).
During the storm, three men attempted to cross the creek at this
spot, but the flooding was so bad they lost their wagon and everything
in it, their four horses drowned, and the men only narrowly escaped
with their own lives.

The destruction once again of his road
must have made Brown feel the job he had taken on was next to
impossible. But some of the travelers on the turnpike were
unsympathetic to the problems he faced in maintaining it, and as
the traffic on the road grew over the years, so did the protests
about the condition in which it was kept.

Historical accounts
show that the trip over the toll road was difficult, to say the
least. In 1865 Elliot Coues had traveled through Cajon Pass on a
journey in which he retraced the route taken by Francisco Garces
in 1775-76, and the data Coues gathered on the trip was later
published in his book, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer. He
described Brown's turnpike as a "narrow, deep and tortuous canyon,
the roughest I have ever traversed on wheels;
there was ten miles
of this from the tollgate to Martin's ranch."

Others were just as
dissatisfied as Coues. In 1873, after receiving increasing
complaints and a petition from teamsters objecting to the sorry
state of the road, the Board of Supervisors agreed there was a need
to address the problem, although no action was taken at that time.

A DIARIST'S JOURNEY THROUGH CAJON PASS

On the other side of the issue, there
were some who felt that travel through the pass was much improved
because of Brown's turnpike and that he should be commended. One
of the few descriptions favorable to travel on the toll road was
given by an anonymous author in the journal of a trip he took to
Ivanpah. The San Bernardino Guardian published the account in a
series of four articles beginning on September 9, 1871.

The journey
began on August 8th, when the author, traveling on law business and
accompanied by a deputy sheriff, left San Bernardino at nine o'clock
in the morning in a somewhat heavy and "by no means handsome" buggy
drawn by two mules. They took with them a "nice little outfit of
knick knacks in the way of oysters, sardines, crackers, etc.," and
did not forget to take along a "demijohn of fine old rye, said to be
good for snake bite." After traveling a distance of twelve miles,
they stopped to water their animals and refresh themselves at the
Cajon Pass station operated by Englishman George Martin.

Martin's Ranch was situated east of what
is now Glen Helen Ranch near Devore, and was established at least
by 1858. The 1862 Assessor's Record Book shows that Martin was
living on public land, and had assets consisting primarily of his
house, 32 head of cattle and 12 horses. Over the years he added
extensively to the original 160 acres of government land. The 1870
census lists him as owning real estate worth $10,000, and the
appraisers of his estate estimated his holdings in Cajon Pass at an
impressive 2,700 acres.

Because of the station's strategic location
at the mouth of Cajon Canyon, most of the travelers using the pass
stopped there, thus it was often referred to in military reports,
diary entries, and the newspapers. George ran his "public
house" -- the English equivalent for "way station" -- with his wife,
Sarah. Living in the home in 1870 were seven of their eight
children (the eldest, Charlotte, had married John Prothero).
Martin’s Ranch prospered until George's death in 1874, and like
Lane's Crossing, it had become associated in the public mind with
its owner, and continued to be called by its original name for many
years even though the proprietor was no longer there.

D'Heureuse photo, courtesy Bancroft Library

MARTIN'S RANCH IN CAJON PASS

The two travelers kept their stay at
Martin's brief, about 20 minutes, and then "drove up to the toll
gate and through the cañon to a station known as the Upper Toll
Gate," arriving there at three o'clock in the afternoon. This way
station was run by James Fears, a Tennessee emigrant who moved to
Cajon Pass sometime during the 1860s.

He and his wife, Naomi, both
51 years old in 1870, lived in the pass with two of their daughters,
aged 14 and 23. Another daughter, Rebecca Ann Bennette, and her
two children moved to a separate house in the pass during the late
1860s, following the death of her first husband. One of her
children, John, was still living in the Oro Grande area some 40 years
later. "Uncle Jim," as Fears was often called by those who knew
him, finally left Cajon Pass in 1874 and moved to Spadra, and he
remained in that vicinity until his death in 1892.

Fears was well thought of by the people
in this area. The editor of the Guardian once stated, "We know
Mr. F to be a clever, honest man, one who makes no promises he is
not able to fill." Uncle Jim naturally became acquainted with
Captain Lane, and the two were on good terms, which is evidenced by
their partnership in the Monarch claim in the Ord Mountain Mining
District.

The anonymous diarist and the deputy
were treated well during their overnight stay at the station.
Immediately upon their arrival, Uncle Jim fed and watered their
animals. He then took the men in to meet the other travelers, a
group apparently comprised of some teamsters who were hauling two
wagonloads of goods to Hardyville on the Colorado River, and a
soldier who had been discharged recently from the guardhouse at a
military post after being tried and cleared for the killing of two
Indians.

That evening Mrs. Fears set the
dinner table with delicious
food and venison steaks "cooked to a nicety as only Mrs. F knows
how." After dinner the diarist and his companion took a run up
into the hills while there was still daylight, and returned to
indulge in a smoke before turning in for the night. At five o'clock
the next morning the two men were awakened by Uncle Jim's call for
all hands to come to breakfast, and as soon as they finished eating
they hitched up the mules and resumed their journey.

The author concluded his narrative on
this segment of the trip by entering into his journal a commendation
of John Brown's accomplishments on the turnpike:

Our
fellow townsman Mr. John Brown is deserving of the thanks of
this community, of the teamsters, and last but not least the poor
devils (the mules) who have to pass over this road, for the work
that he commenced, finished and still keeps in good
order; this
route through and over the Cajon Pass. To the many who travel this
road it is accepted as a matter of course, but to an old and
observing traveller it is really a work reflecting credit on the
designer and constructor.

The diarist's and others good opinion of
Brown's turnpike was outweighed by those who brought significant
commerce into San Bernardino, and by 1874 improvement of the road
had become a primary issue. The freighting traffic on the turnpike
had escalated greatly, due primarily to the demand for supplies at
the new mining town of Panamint and the huge shipments of
provisions being sent to the older mining communities in Arizona
and the eastern Mojave Desert.

An excellent example of the magnitude
of the supply system
was given in an article in the Guardian, which
described a single wagon train made up of 30 wagons with twelve-mule
teams and carrying some 200,000 pounds of freight bound for
Hardyville and Prescott, Arizona. For anyone who has visited the
upper narrows and has seen the boulder-strewn route through the
winding canyon, it is hard to visualize how anyone could have
maneuvered such heavy loads and huge teams of animals
through there.

BROWN MAKES IMPROVEMENTS TO TOLL ROAD

In the latter part of 1874, John Brown
finally decided to make some improvements to the turnpike, a
decision no doubt spurred for the most part by the explosion of
activity created by the Panamint mines, and the constant flow of
traffic between there and the Southern Pacific railhead at Spadra.
The increase in toll collections from this traffic was substantial
enough to support a major reconstruction on the steepest segment of
the road near the summit.

Courtesy Feldheym Library

A LATER STATION AT THE
UPPER TOLLGATE, BUILT IN NEARLY THE SAME

LOCATION AS THE ORIGINAL, WHICH WAS
DESTROYED BY FIRE ON JUNE 4, 1876

In September Brown promised to relocate
the road, so that teams could "go through the low gap to the right
of the top of the hill, thereby avoiding the high ascent of the
present road." He also planned to improve the new route by blasting
a 185-foot segment in order to reduce the grade even further. In
early December it was reported that a "splendid highway" was under
construction, and Brown announced he would "spare no expense in
improving it to perfection." On December 28th the San Bernardino
Weekly Argus gave a glowing account of the
project:

THE NEW
ROAD -- The new road being built by Mr. Brown is certainly a
great improvement. It intercepts the toll road about a mile above
Fear's station and runs in a direct line for Panamint and is nearer
Bear and Holcomb valleys, and other mining districts, than the old
road.

Mr. Brown
has had considerable experience in road building and
has selected an excellent grade over the summit, perfectly straight,
and wide enough for teams to pass each other nearly all the way.
The summit is a hard cement formation and has to be blasted. Several
cuts are being made and hollows filled, some a long distance.
The work was finished in early February, and Brown, in an ebullient
mood, said, "I wish...to inform the traveling public that the
so-much-talked-of new wagon road through the Cajon Pass, is
finished, the last spike driven."

LEASES ROAD TO DRIGGERS

Brown was finally on the verge
of success with this most difficult endeavor. He had every prospect
for enormous profits from the Panamint trade, yet he apparently decided
he had had enough of its never-ending maintenance problems and he
leased the road to John J. Driggers of San Bernardino.

The lease,
which began on May 1, 1875, was for a period of one year at $125 per
month, and included all the houses and barns at the lower tollgate.
Driggers was to maintain the turnpike in such condition that "ten and
twelve mule teams and wagons" could safely "and conveniently pass
along and over said road." Brown reserved the right for his family,
and the families of his sons-in-law, Sydney P. Waite, Byron Waters
and W. R. Wozencraft, to use the road free of charge, not to exceed
two freight wagons and one stage.

Though Brown's turnpike had undergone a
total reconstruction at the summit, repair elsewhere on the road had
been neglected. There were people who were still dissatisfied, Captain
Lane among them. It was in the month following completion of the
project that he and George Blake published their notice that they and
the other Mojave River settlers would "decline" to pay toll after May
1st if the road was not repaired.

DRIGGERS V LANE

Within three weeks after the
deadline passed, Lane began making good his proclamation, and Driggers,
now in control of the turnpike, was forced to file suit against him.
The attorneys representing Driggers were Rolfe, Waters and John
Brown, Jr. Lane used the law firm of Paris, Bledsoe and Goodcell.
The complaint listed six declarations, which are noted here in brief:

1) The
State Legislature passed an act authorizing the construction
of the road and the collection of toll for a 20-year period.

2) The road was surveyed and constructed
as required, commencing at Martin's Station and ending at a
point two and one-half miles northeast of Fears' Station.

3) Willis and Tucker sold their interests
in the road to Brown.

4) Brown leased the road to Driggers.

5) On May 19 and May 21, 1875,
defendant A. G. Lane "forcibly passed
through the toll-gate thereon with one two-horse wagon without paying
and refusing to pay the legal toll";
and again on June 12th, June 15th
and July 21st, he "turned out of said road with his said two horse
team, and passed around said gate on ground adjacent thereto, and again
entered said road and continued traveling on the same without paying
and refusing to pay the legal toll...."

6) "That defendant is indebted
to said plaintiff for said legal toll
in the sum of $6 and according to law, for turning out of said road
three times to avoid paying the legal toll $5; for each offense, $15,
and for forcibly passing through said gate three times without paying
the legal toll, $25 for each offense, $75, amounting in all
to $96."

Lane's response to the suit took an
interesting turn when he or his
lawyers decided to challenge Brown's right to operate the lower tollgate
at the southern end of the turnpike, where travel over the public road
had been blocked. Obstruction of the public highway was expressly
forbidden in Section 3 of the legislative act for the toll road, which
stated, "Said road...shall not hinder nor obstruct the existing traveled
road through said pass."

This was recognized even during
construction, as the June 1,
1861, issue of the Los Angeles Star stated:

This road
does not in the least infringe upon, impede or obstruct the travel on
the present road through the Pass, but the grant locates the turnpike
through the canyon that was traveled by the large immigration that came
into this valley in 1847, which pass for some eight or ten years has
been almost entirely abandoned,except occasionally its being used as
a pack trail.

In his answer to the complaint, Lane
alleged that Brown could not legally collect toll at all on the lower
portion of the turnpike, since for the most part that stretch of
road had not been a new construction, but merely an improvement of
the existing public road. "...Plaintiff is not now and has not been
in charge of any toll road upon which he was authorized to collect
toll," Lane asserted. Further, "...Said road is not and never has
been a toll road, but the same is a Public highway free for all persons
to travel over and has been so for twenty years last past."

His final
allegation stated, "...Plaintiff has Erected and is Keeping a toll
gate upon a public highway that has been in use for twenty years...and
was used as a Public highway ten years before the passage of the act
of Legislature...."

The public highway utilized Sanford's
road in the west Cajon valley and then followed an alignment of the
old Spanish Trail. Lane was not challenging Brown's right to charge
toll for the section of his road in the east Cajon that crossed over
the summit and ran down through Crowder Canyon. He was contesting
that portion southerly of the present-day truck scales operated by
the California Highway Patrol on Interstate 15, which was where
Brown's turnpike and the public road both came together and followed
the alignment of the Spanish Trail. This section was open to the
public until Brown built the lower tollhouse at a point where the
narrows were just a few yards in width.

SECTION OF 1875 LOS ANGELES AND INDEPENDENCE
RAILWAY MAP, FROM MARTIN'S RANCH TO FEARS' HOUSE. FAUROT'S
HOUSE IS LATER CALLED BEAR
FLAT RANCH, TO WHERE THE LOWER TOLLGATE WAS
EVENTUALLY MOVED. THE FORK AT THE NORTH END
OF THE MAP IS WHERE THE TOLL ROAD JOINS WITH THE ROAD
FROM SANFORD'S PASS. THE SITE NAMES ARE
TOO SMALL TO READ, SO THEY HAVE BEEN TYPED IN.

The group of witnesses called upon to
testify was an impressive assemblage of early pioneers who might
have been expected to know every aspect of the history of the road,
or of travel in Cajon Pass for that matter. Included were David Noble
Smith and Sydney P. Waite, both of whom helped build the road and at
one time served as tollkeepers on the turnpike. Also giving testimony
were David Seely, Parley Heap, Chris Taylor, J. B. Forbes, Archibald
Martin, a Mr. Prothero (probably John), and a half-dozen others.
Surveyor Fred T. Perris and his chainman, J. E. Pick, also were
called upon to testify.

Altogether fifteen witnesses were paid for
appearing in court, most of them for three days. Fred Perris was
paid an additional $50 for "diagnosis," which most likely meant he
served as the equivalent of today's "expert witness."

The statements of the witnesses were
not transcribed, but the judge's instructions to the jury were
recorded, and show that the focus of the case centered on
construction that was done 13 years previously in the vicinity of
the lower tollhouse. The road in this area was extensively damaged
in the 1862 storms, and Brown graded a new one on higher ground for
about one-half mile parallel to the original road. This became the
crux of Lane's defense, since Brown's tollhouse, fences and structures
blocked the original track from public use.

The judge's
instructions are summarized here, as they assist in understanding
the direction of the case:

1) The toll
road could not be constructed in such a manner as to
hinder travel to such a degree as to cause the public road to fall
into disuse. If the jury found from the evidence that the public
road had been so obstructed by Brown, then plaintiff could not recover
his losses.

2) If any portion of the public
road was taken over by the
plaintiff, and toll demanded from the defendant for passing over
that section, then that toll was unlawful and the jury should not
find for the plaintiff.

3) This point introduces the
issue of Brown's blockage of the old
road that was damaged in the 1862 storms. The instructions reveal
that the public was allowed free access to his newly-graded road
until the lower tollhouse was constructed. The judge stated that
if the jury found that at this time Brown had erected a fence, or
corral and barn, or other obstruction across the narrows for the
purpose of preventing the public from using the old track, then the
plaintiff was to lose the suit.

4) If the jury found that Brown
had built any obstruction for the
purpose of causing the one-half mile of old road to be abandoned by
travelers so that it would fall into disuse, then the verdict should
be for the defendant.

5) If the road was simply straightened
and improved at the narrows
so as to cause the public to travel upon these improvements for three
or four years prior to erecting the toll gate, then plaintiff could
not win the suit.

6) If the old road had been abandoned
and had fallen into disuse
before the erection of the fence, then the building of the fence did
not affect the right to collect toll, and the jury could find for the
plaintiff.

From the instructions it can be seen
that the issues are complex, but
essentially the jury is being asked to decide whether Brown had
intentionally caused a section of the old road to fall into disuse,
or whether it had been abandoned simply because a better road was
available. If the latter were the case, then toll could be collected
legally, in that the old road had become public because of usage over
the years, and if several years passed without the road being traveled,
the public lost that right.

The case was argued before the court
on the evening of October 3,
1875, and after a short deliberation, the jury found for the plaintiff.
The press received information that this was not the end of the issue,
for on October 5th it was reported, "There will probably be more of the
case.... We learn that another suit will be brought and that the case
recently decided will be appealed to the Supreme Court." The decision
was never appealed nor were there any other lawsuits, but the issue of
excessive tolls and poor maintenance did not subside until the turnpike
became a public road and the fees were discontinued.

Captain Lane was not ready to give up
yet in his fight for a public highway. During the trial the judge
had directed that if any individuals wanted a toll adjustment when
utilizing the public road, they must apply to the Supervisors. The
Board alone, he stated, had the right to regulate toll on the road.

Lane subsequently circulated a
petition, which was signed by
D. Cahill, William Pierce, John Prothero, and others living on the
river, requesting that they be allowed to reopen the old road at
the earliest opportunity. The petition was submitted to the Board
and discussed during the meeting of December 7, 1875. It read, in
part:

Your petitioners
living on the Mojave River being heavily
taxed in consequence of the high rates of toll charged on the Toll
Road running through the Cajon Pass in the County, and the old Road
formerly running through the said Pass having been hindered and
totally obstructed by the owner of the said Toll Road, which is itself
almost impassable, respectfully ask that they be allowed the
privilege of opening the old road
through the said Cajon Pass.

The
Board granted the petition without further comment, thereby setting
up a potential confrontation, though no reports of subsequent
conflicts can be found.

The Board's grant of the petition came
to naught, and complaints about the toll road resumed. In October
of 1876 the newspaper published an editorial on the issue, being very
careful not to accuse the respected proprietor of the turnpike of
being remiss:

We have
heard many complaints from persons living on the Mojave on
account of the expense they are under in traveling to and from town by
having to pay high rates of toll and many of the settlers are even
talking of transfering their trade from this town to Mojave Station
[Kern County railroad station]. No complaints are made of the road or
its proprietor, who is under very heavy expenses in keeping the same in
repair, and to whom they give the credit of doing his duty faithfully,
but they think that, as the county is benefitted by their trade it
should furnish them a road at public expense and relieve them of the
onerous tax to which they are now subjected.

A burden which is
crushing to the few becomes light when supported by the many. If a
fair figure were offered, the proprietor would undoubtedly dispose of
his franchise and the road could be opened to the public. It may be
well for our Supervisors to give this matter their serious
consideration as we are not strong enough to bear the loss of the
business of so important a tract
as the Mohave.

JOHN BROWN, SR.

Months passed with no action being taken,
until finally the Supervisors ordered John Brown to appear before
them and explain why the toll should not be reduced. Following a
delay due to illness, Brown did appear before the Board on March 11,
1878, to plead his case. He successfully argued to keep the old toll
rates, but the Board ordered one modification in the toll
collection: he was to allow teams and wagons
hauling forage to the summit to pay only one way, provided they
returned empty.

Brown also was ordered to construct
two turnarounds
in the upper narrows, and to improve the road at a place called Point
of Rocks, also located in the upper narrows (not to be confused with
Point of Rocks on the Mojave River). He was given a deadline of June
1, 1878, to complete the improvements.

One week before the deadline, on May
24, 1878, Brown sold the toll road franchise to Jesse Tay and
Charles M. Lawrence, both of whom were miners prior to coming to
San Bernardino in 1875. Having learned from his experience with
the Driggers case and perhaps fearing further action by the Board
of Supervisors, Brown inserted a clause in the transfer documents
to protect himself from future grief:

The grantor
in no way guarantees the right to collect tolls on said road
nor the validity of the said franchise nor its duration nor the
legality of such tolls, but the grantees assume all risk as to those
matters, and to take this transfer subject to such risk and no claim
or adjudication in any way impairing or annulling the right to collect
on diminished tolls on said road shall ever in any manner create any
liability against grantor....

On the same day as the sale, Tay and
Lawrence took out a mortgage that included the Bear Flat Ranch
property and all of its improvements. They then moved the lower
tollgate to the ranch, and headquartered
all their operations there.

Wallace W. Elliott, History of San Bernardino
and San Diego Counties, 1883

TAY AND LAWRENCE'S
LOWER TOLLHOUSE

AT THE BEAR FLAT RANCH (NOW COSY DELL)

October 17, 1882, was a day for the
Mojave settlers to celebrate. That was the day the charter for the
turnpike finally expired, and the road became a public thoroughfare.
One of the newspapers reported, "Some ingenious person has draped
the toll gate pole in black and swung it over the road so travelers
may mourn over the event of its demise, but at the top of the pole
is a sprig of evergreen, emblematic, we suppose, that no more toll
has to be paid." It is easy to imagine Aaron as one of those who
had a hand in the ceremonial last rites for the tollgate, but the
responsible parties remain anonymous.